SET amp owners thread

Rob181 said:
Hey Bonzo - which GM70 amp would that be. A GM70 amp is on my bucket list & I will never get to hear any before buying so will be reliant on others I trust for recommendations - thanks...
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It is UK built one that you hear in many of the Universum videos. I have heard the Tektron and the old Lampi GM70 as well. They all sound different, there is not a typical GM70. I liked this one. Here are some compares (renssaeler owned Ayon Spitfire before)

How much does it bother you to see people arguing on the forum. Analogists and digitalists and subcategories.

"... different objectives of high-end audio." Are these goals based on reality? Or on their subjective illusions? Some people like to create boxes then ask into which one do you fit. Reponses are used to 'validate' the boxes and then claim that disagreements come from not properly...
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bonzo75 said:
It is UK built one that you hear in many of the Universum videos. I have heard the Tektron and the old Lampi GM70 as well. They all sound different, there is not a typical GM70. I liked this one. Here are some compares (renssaeler owned Ayon Spitfire before)

How much does it bother you to see people arguing on the forum. Analogists and digitalists and subcategories.

"... different objectives of high-end audio." Are these goals based on reality? Or on their subjective illusions? Some people like to create boxes then ask into which one do you fit. Reponses are used to 'validate' the boxes and then claim that disagreements come from not properly...
www.whatsbestforum.com www.whatsbestforum.com
Click to expand...
Any idea why the GM70 you like so much is only making 14 watts? Interestingly, so does the Destination AUdio GM70 and the one from OMA. Others make anywhere from 20-42 watts (Lamm 32 and Amplifon 42). I would be curious about the designers ideas around the choice as it has a lot to do with the plate voltage and current, which will impact the character of the sound and distortion components...probably also affects the choice of output transformer greatly as well.
 
Rob181 said:
Hey Bonzo - which GM70 amp would that be. A GM70 amp is on my bucket list & I will never get to hear any before buying so will be reliant on others I trust for recommendations - thanks...
Click to expand...
Hey Rob, Kedar brought a fellow (Mark) over with two amps and a pre to audition in my system. One amp was the GM70, the other 211’s. The power supply for the GM70 is separate on an umbilical, and a preamp was necessary (he builds this as well, AC-heated). He used just a common household power strip to power everything.

The AC-heated preamp would sometimes hum if your hands got close to the valves, which bothered me some. The sound, in my system however, was so much better, with either of the amps than my Ayon integrated, that I declare here the best sounding system that I ever heard. The tonality of instruments more real, better presence, the GM70 had better grip, faster and tighter than the 211, the 211 slightly more musical.

Mark was offering to build me a pre and amps (either) for £24,000 back then.
 
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morricab said:
Any idea why the GM70 you like so much is only making 14 watts? Interestingly, so does the Destination AUdio GM70 and the one from OMA. Others make anywhere from 20-42 watts (Lamm 32 and Amplifon 42). I would be curious about the designers ideas around the choice as it has a lot to do with the plate voltage and current, which will impact the character of the sound and distortion components...probably also affects the choice of output transformer greatly as well.
Click to expand...

And silvercore uses his 833c for 20 watts, that Chinese company and wavac do for over 100 watts, and 300bs power varies with every amp.
 
Rensselaer said:
Hey Rob, Kedar brought a fellow (Mark) over with two amps and a pre to audition in my system. One amp was the GM70, the other 211’s. The power supply for the GM70 is separate on an umbilical, and a preamp was necessary (he builds this as well, AC-heated). He used just a common household power strip to power everything.

The AC-heated preamp would sometimes hum if your hands got close to the valves, which bothered me some. The sound, in my system however, was so much better, with either of the amps than my Ayon integrated, that I declare here the best sounding system that I ever heard. The tonality of instruments more real, better presence, the GM70 had better grip, faster and tighter than the 211, the 211 slightly more musical.

Mark was offering to build me a pre and amps (either) for £24,000 back then.
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What specifically was so much better?
 
godofwealth said:
I don’t listen anywhere that loud: one reason my hearing is intact after 35+ of owning high end audio equipment. I keep the average volume in the mid 70dBs with peaks getting into perhaps the 90dB range. That’s still only a tenth of a watt from a SET. Even my 45 based SET monoblocks that generate about a watt each seem plenty loud to me.

I’d love for someone to create a company called First Milliwatt and produce high quality milliwatt amplifiers! I think about 100 milliwatts is all I need for my La Scalas!
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The STC British telephony tubes like 3A-107a, 3A109a, 3A110a produce a whopping quarter of a watt, and sound fantastic (tubes favored by KS Park in preamps). Used as amps, would probably be right up your alley.
 
morricab said:
What specifically was so much better?
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The sound of the violins, cellos etc. sounded so much more real. Felt as if, had I a pre-existing knowledge of such, I would have known what strings and rosin they were playing with. With the GM70’s there was better dynamics, the attack of drum strikes on the AAA records was crisp and quick, the 211’s were slightly softer but seemed to have more emotion. My Ayon sounded much more “Hi-Fi” in comparison.
 
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The 211 (with psvane valves) is more sounding like an amp, while the GM70 just disappears and there is music. I prefer his GM70, i think it has more emotion with better recordings and lets the recordings through while the 211 psvane's colour.
 
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Rensselaer said:
Hey Rob, Kedar brought a fellow (Mark) over with two amps and a pre to audition in my system. One amp was the GM70, the other 211’s. The power supply for the GM70 is separate on an umbilical, and a preamp was necessary (he builds this as well, AC-heated). He used just a common household power strip to power everything.

The AC-heated preamp would sometimes hum if your hands got close to the valves, which bothered me some. The sound, in my system however, was so much better, with either of the amps than my Ayon integrated, that I declare here the best sounding system that I ever heard. The tonality of instruments more real, better presence, the GM70 had better grip, faster and tighter than the 211, the 211 slightly more musical.

Mark was offering to build me a pre and amps (either) for £24,000 back then.
Click to expand...
How is the Otoman Labs Soundgate 211 going Mark? Congrats on getting it. Ken Uesugi amps always look good and seem quite tantalising in the way he explores various circuits and tubes though that variability also is a bit challenging in terms of working out which to go with in choosing his amps.

Did you look into the Soundgate GM 70 amps? In the Otoman Labs videos the GM 70 monos also looked to be worth considering. Think they put out about 30 watts from memory.

It would be great to get more thoughts on your 211 amp and how buying Soundgate worked out for you and even a few videos of your system if you’re open to sharing some.
 
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Rensselaer said:
Hey Rob, Kedar brought a fellow (Mark) over with two amps and a pre to audition in my system. One amp was the GM70, the other 211’s. The power supply for the GM70 is separate on an umbilical, and a preamp was necessary (he builds this as well, AC-heated). He used just a common household power strip to power everything.

The AC-heated preamp would sometimes hum if your hands got close to the valves, which bothered me some. The sound, in my system however, was so much better, with either of the amps than my Ayon integrated, that I declare here the best sounding system that I ever heard. The tonality of instruments more real, better presence, the GM70 had better grip, faster and tighter than the 211, the 211 slightly more musical.

Mark was offering to build me a pre and amps (either) for £24,000 back then.
Click to expand...

Thank you Rensselaer - very much appreciated.

Mark is who & from where - is there a website with details???
 
Rob181 said:
Thank you Rensselaer - very much appreciated.

Mark is who & from where - is there a website with details???
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Audio detail is the brand. Not much on the site. He is from Birmingham. The universum room that features in my videos is his place.
 
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the sound of Tao said:
How is the Otoman Labs Soundgate 211 going Mark? Congrats on getting it. Ken Uesugi amps always look good and seem quite tantalising in the way he explores various circuits and tubes though that variability also is a bit challenging in terms of working out which to go with in choosing his amps.

Did you look into the Soundgate GM 70 amps? In the Otoman Labs videos the GM 70 monos also looked to be worth considering. Think they put out about 30 watts from memory.

It would be great to get more thoughts on your 211 amp and how buying Soundgate worked out for you and even a few videos of your system if you’re open to sharing some.
Click to expand...


Soundgate makes a great product. I should have bought an amp with a lower power output for the speakers I have however, as I can barely get the volume up before so loud that I fear tearing my compression driver diaphragms. A 50 cycle hum from the power supply transformer is apparent when ears close to the speaker too, but I was told the Kondo Ongaku has a bit of that as well?
 
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Rensselaer said:

Soundgate makes a great product. I should have bought an amp with a lower power output for the speakers I have however, as I can barely get the volume up before so loud that I fear tearing my compression driver diaphragms. A 50 cycle hum from the power supply transformer is apparent when ears close to the speaker too, but I was told the Kondo Ongaku has a bit of that as well?
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That’s great that it’s worked out Mark and you’re enjoying it… sounding good!
 
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bonzo75 said:
The 211 (with psvane valves) is more sounding like an amp, while the GM70 just disappears and there is music. I prefer his GM70, i think it has more emotion with better recordings and lets the recordings through while the 211 psvane's colour.
Click to expand...
You are talking about the graphite GM70, right (there were two different GM70 valve types that we auditioned on that day)? At the end of the day you took me to the side and told me that the GM70 (graphite) was the one I wanted to buy. Hugo took me to the side as well saying the 211 was the one I wanted to buy. To tell the truth, they both sounded so much better than my Ayon that I kept noticing that difference over the differences between the GM70 and 211. I did notice a difference, but couldn’t say which I prefered.
 
Rensselaer said:
You are talking about the graphite GM70, right (there were two different GM70 valve types that we auditioned on that day)? At the end of the day you took me to the side and told me that the GM70 (graphite) was the one I wanted to buy. Hugo took me to the side as well saying the 211 was the one I wanted to buy. To tell the truth, they both sounded so much better than my Ayon that I kept noticing that difference over the differences between the GM70 and 211. I did notice a difference, but couldn’t say which I prefered.
Click to expand...

The graphite and copper is system dependent and have minimal cost to make it a consideration which one, both can be tried. In your system the graphite sounded better, in another the copper did.

I did not want to hurt the 211 designer feelings, so didn’t say out loud. Fyi I did not tell you to buy, but to check with him if you could get more flexibility on auditioning longer without the preamp since you wanted no preamp, you could have tried a passive or get him to inbuild a VC got you.

Hugo heard two tracks coming across those and most of GM70 was heard with my recordings. I have been listening to both amps for a while, the GM 70 I really like and desire myself depending upon the speaker.

In fact I want to try out a Slagle silver passive preamp which I can try to get sent over to yours so we can listen with your 211.
 
morricab said:
Interestingly, so does the Destination AUdio GM70 and the one from OMA.
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The DA and this GM70 are both 14 watts class A1. Mark thinks he can get upto 20 but prefers to run at 70 percent ratings thinks at higher power there is more distortion and shorter life.
 
bonzo75 said:
The DA and this GM70 are both 14 watts class A1. Mark thinks he can get upto 20 but prefers to run at 70 percent ratings thinks at higher power there is more distortion and shorter life.
Click to expand...
The GM70 can make up to 43 watts Class A1 if run at over 1200V. 20 watts is easy peasey with that tube.
 
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